h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Although the virus-risk in e-mails, it's faster and more simple.. don't you think?

I agree emails are faster & simpler but there is something about getting an actual letter or card through snailmail (perhaps the effort the sender put into it?) that you just don't get electronically.

Ya, you're right. The only big risk with e-mail is viruses and those are pretty easy to prevent. And nowadays you can get virsuses from snail mail, namely anthrax.

Anthrax from mail isn't much of a concern in my little corner of the world. More like papercuts.

Trouble is that I get so much spam that email is getting to the point of uselessness. I'll maybe get 1 useful email a day (usually the ACE chat group mail) and then have to delete 40 others. No I don't want a loan, to get my free prize or see Britany Spears naked.

In work our distribution centre/central lab is contacted more easily through email. That's the only thing which makes email worth it at the moment, the speed, and with snail mail in the uk getting slower it will have to become more widely used for commercial sectors.

I still get excited at getting a letter through snail mail, somebody has actually paid to send me this. I think this excitement will last until bills start to come in in force


SallyM

I don't think virii are a big problem with e-mail. I've had things sent to me before that, had I ran or had my mail client ran, could have damaged my machine but it's only a case of deleting anything that looks suspect from addresses you don't recognise and, if you're using a version of Outlook, disabling all the fancy lets-run-everything-in-sight-regardless-of-what-it-might-be settings.

I use Mozilla Mail which has the ability to setup filters that you can use for things such as filtering out anything that looks remotely like spam from your mail as it arrives. The best way I've found to avoid unwanted rubbish arriving in your mailbox is to make a webmail account with hotmail or yahoo, or whoever, and use that when you signup to anything. Then keep your "proper" e-mail address seperate for personal mail.

I still couldn't say which I prefer between snailmail or email. It's nice to get a letter because you can see a person's gone to trouble to write you it but e-mail is infinitely quicker and also alot more secure, providing you have decent encryption setup.

I use my hotmail for all my "public" mail so it gets all those lovely porn offers (Where do those come from?) and now with the .Mac fiasco I just use the email address provided by my ISP. (I can have up to 5)

My e-mail account recieves, miraculously, no junk e-mail. I recently switched from Hotmail because my hotmail address was getting filled with the stuff.

I encrypt as many of my messages as possible with PGP, therefore negating the security problem.

I never open any any unsolicitated attachments. I never, ever, open any executables or other high-risk attachments. I have never caught a virus, partly because I've always used Linux, and therefore can't be infected by them .

Personally, I prefer e-mail to snailmail. It costs less, I don't particularly care about the psycological aspects and it's quick and convenient.

Perhaps the only use I have for snail mail now is as a mail-order delivery system .

Here in Canada most of the mail order stuff I get comes by Federal Express.

I use a mac so I've never even seen a virus.

This might give you some idea ;]

http://www.cluelessmailers.org/spamdemic/mapfullsize3.html

That big flowchart's making my ill!

Not being Britishh i wouldn't know how slow the mail system is, but ovefr hera in the good ol' U.S. of Ait takes about 2 days for mail to get from coast to coast. So E-mail definilty has that advantage, but spam is the scurge of my existense though i also hate junk mail. By the way could you forwrad me some of theose britney spears e-mails.

Hey mac boy, don't nock P.C.'s because you can write a virus that only works on macs

All of the ones at my Hotmail address seemed to be about loans... definatly not a turn-on .

The porn mail comes form a complex system of comoputers known only as the beast.

really, i've always found low introductory offers to be very attractive.

and sometimes they promise you ...

I like presents.

I think e-mail is great, shame about the spam. But lets face it, we get a ton and a half of paper spam through the letter box, and at least e-mail spam doesn't destroy several major forests each year.

Researcher PSG

p.s. the effectiveness of UK mail seems to depend on where you live. I actually saw one place on watchdog that hasn't recieved any post for months.

i like how you say post, and letter box